Love Blog Series # 6.2.3: Loving You

Do You Know God's Name?
I found this site by Pastor Ahyh (www.yhwh.com) and I asked permission to use some of his explanations about God's name.

Now before we begin... How will this be connected in loving your neighbor, your enemy, your friend, your loved-one, your boyfriend, girlfriend, family, mother, father, etc...?

You'll soon find out. Now let's have a special verse that will connect your question to God's name:

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." - Matthew 25:40

Let's start off from where I ended last topic. We have discussed before that we need to love God not because God needs our love but because it is more of a response to His love. It is also for us to learn how to really love. And in loving someone, one thing we must know is that person's name. So what is God's name?

From the bible, we can find the answer from Exodus 3:13-14. This is when Moses actually asked God His Name.

13Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?"

14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" - Exodus 3:13-14

God's Name is not God. It's not Lord. It's even not Jesus. Yes, His name is Jesus when He was on earth. But before being called Jesus, He said His real Name also:

"Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.'" - John 8:58

So God's Name is I AM. Now, this is the translation (or meaning in English words) from the Hebrew texts originally written many years ago. The transliteration (or using the same letters of the English alphabet) of "I AM" is YHWH or YaHWeh. So in Hebrew language, God's Name is Yahweh.

Now in using the Hebrew language, YHWH becomes
is Y meaning Yod, rhymes with "rode"
is H meaning He, rhymes with "say"
is W or V meaning Vav, like "lava"
and another H.

Now, the Hebrews wrote it from right to left making it

But God didn't wrote it left to right or right to left. He wrote it from top to bottom. And He didn't use a pen and paper to write it. He used something else (YES!! He's the Most Creative Writer I've ever known...)

He wrote His Name like this:



You!! He wrote His Name in our very existence and in every existing human being. His Name is you, your neighbor, your enemy, your friend, your loved-one, boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, father, etc... Just look: The Yod is our head, the 1st He is our arms, the Vav is our torso and the last He is our legs. This supports the reason that what we do to the least of our brothers, we do it unto Him. Because His Name is us!! He created us not only in His image and likeness, we are His very Name!! Isn't that amazing?

That's the reason why we need to love others... That's the reason why we need to also love ourselves. We are His very Name. And because we love Him also, we also ought to love others as we love ourselves. It's also a response to His love. Thus, making the only true, logical and basic reason why we love others is because we love our Lord, YHWH (See Love Blog Series #3: True Love Has One Reason Alone).

So, this ends the "knowing" part of this topic series. Now will get into the "internalization" part. Tune in next time for our next topic.

PS1. Sorry for the delay. It's been 2 weeks, I know. I have to ask permission from Pastor Ahyh (Thanks for permitting me to spread the word!!) I also have to "connect the dots" so to speak to make a point :D

PS2. Next topic in our subseries: I Will Love Today

PS3. Watch out for our next set of topics: Being Complete

Love Blog Series #3: True Love has One Reason Alone

One day I got a text message from one of my friends in the ministry. The message asked if there is a reason behind loving a person.

Then it was followed by a series of premises that if the reason for loving the person is because he or she is funny and he or she makes you happy, what if the person stops being funny at all? Will you still love the person?
What if your reason is because the person is beautiful? What if the person suddenly becomes ugly, will you still love the person?
What if your reason is because the person can provide you with your needs? What if the person suddenly loses its job and can't provide for you, will you still love the person?

Then it was followed that love defies all reasons, when you love, you just do...

Ask me if I agree to that last line a year ago (2006), I would say a resounding yes... I said that many times to the last exclusive relationship I once had.

Ask me now, I will beg to disagree.

Why? Because I now firmly believe that when you love, you just don't love blindly, like you don't know why you love. You just don't do it without any logic and reason at all. I don't believe that there's no logic behind love.

True Love has only One Reason Alone, and it is logically sound also.

How can that be?
Is there really a reason why you love a person?
Yes!!

To prove that, I'll tell you 2 theological premises I got from my preacher friends.

1st Premise: Everything has a reason and purpose under God's presence.
2nd Premise: Nothing exists outside God's presence.

Thus, if everything, including love, has a reason under God's presence and nothing exists outside His presence, then I could say that love has a reason after all. That when you love a person, it has a reason.

Now why is it that there is only one reason? Why not many?
When you love, to be genuine and true, a person has to base it on some good foundation.
Getting the premises of the text message from my friend, I could say that those reasons are not good foundations because they can change in time and nature. If your foundation changes without prior notice, it is like building your house of love in a sandy land: It gets destroyed by the winds, waves, storms and floods of problems and uncertainties.

The point here is you can't base your love with reasons that are not good to withstand any problem that could brake your relationship. You should base it on solid ground. And there is one solid ground that cannot be shaken even if magnitude 9 happens.

Are you ready for that reason? Because it has shaken every belief that I had before about love. And this had become one of my core beliefs in this world.

You love this person because you want to serve God, you want to love God more in serving and loving him or her.

That's the basic idea, the basic reason, the only reason why you love or you should love a person. Because you are loving God. And when you love God, you obey His commandments. And His 10 commandments which is compressed into two are to love God with all your heart, mind and strength and to love others as He has loved you. The former can be seen in the 1st three of the Gospels and the latter commandment can be seen at all four Gospels.

See? This is the basic and solid foundation, and your love for that person will never fail because of this.

It's a lame excuse to say that you love a person without any reason... that when you love a person you just do. It means only that you really didn't love that person truly.

I know, been there... done that. And it is a bad thing, because when shaken by problems... your love, and all of its "foundations" (actually there are no foundations when you just love... when you just do it), will just crumble down into ruins (and may actually be just a feeling after all... that's why you don't have any reason at all...)

That's why...

You do not love because she is beautiful, because beauty fades.

You do not love because he has met your standards, because he might fail to live it at some point in time. (but you still need standards, more on this on the next topic of our Love Blog Series on why we still need to have standards)

You do not love because he provides for you, because he still might lose his job.

You do not love because of the feeling, because feelings fly away the way they just come in, unnoticed and often times uncontrollable. (this is what you call, falling-in love and falling-out-of love... other words: infatuation)

You do not love because the person loves you back, because you may not feel that person's love at times (but there are many ways to feel and make the other person feel your love. We will also discuss the most discussed topic about the languages of love on another topic in our Love blog series)



There is only one reason why you love, and that is:

You love because you love God, and by loving this person you are loving God more.
And this is what you call genuine and true love.